Plant Propagation Calculator
Calculate cutting count, mother plant needs, and cost for vegetative plant propagation based on target production and success rate.
About this calculator
Vegetative propagation always loses some cuttings to failed rooting, so producing a target number of finished plants means starting with more cuttings than you actually need. This calculator inflates Target Finished Plants by your expected Rooting Success Rate to get Cuttings to Take, then divides that by Cuttings per Mother Plant to size your stock plant inventory as Mother Plants Needed. Both Target Finished Plants and Rooting Success Rate move Cuttings to Take directly and by comparable amounts — doubling either the target or halving the success rate roughly doubles the cuttings you need to start — while Mother Plant Cost, Rooting Hormone Cost, and Media & Tray Cost affect only the cost side of the results and have no bearing on how many cuttings or mother plants the plan calls for.
Cuttings per Mother Plant works in the opposite direction from the others: a higher yield per stock plant lowers Mother Plants Needed, since fewer donor plants are required to supply the same cutting count. Tray sizing assumes standard 72-cell propagation trays, and cost estimates are a simple sum of stock plant, hormone, and media/tray costs divided across the finished plants — they don't account for labor, greenhouse space, mist system operating costs, or losses beyond the stated rooting failure rate (disease, temperature stress, and handling damage are not modeled separately).
Inputs
Results
Cuttings to Take
589
Mother Plants Needed
24
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the number of finished rooted plants you need to produce and the expected rooting success rate (%).
- Enter cuttings per mother plant per cycle and the cost per mother plant to size your stock plant inventory.
- Enter rooting hormone cost per cutting and media/tray cost per 72-cell tray.
- Review Cuttings to Take and Mother Plants Needed to plan your propagation bench and stock inventory.
- Use Total Propagation Cost and Cost per Finished Plant to evaluate profitability or compare propagation vs. purchasing liners.
How the result changes with Rooting Success Rate
| Rooting Success Rate | Cuttings to Take | Mother Plants Needed |
|---|---|---|
| 43 | 1,163 | 47 |
| 64 | 782 | 32 |
| 100 | 500 | 20 |
What each input means
- Target Finished Plants
- Number of rooted plants you want to produce.
- Rooting Success Rate
- Expected percentage of cuttings that root successfully.
- Cuttings per Mother Plant
- Number of cuttings taken from each mother plant per cycle.
- Mother Plant Cost
- Cost per mother plant.
- Rooting Hormone Cost per Cutting
- Cost of rooting hormone per cutting.
- Media & Tray Cost per Tray
- Cost of propagation tray and media (72-cell).
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters6 parametersTarget Finished Plants = 500, Rooting Success Rate = 85, Cuttings per Mother Plant = 25, Mother Plant Cost = 12, Rooting Hormone Cost per Cutting = 0.02, Media & Tray Cost per Tray = 3.5 = 6 input(s) provided
- Calculate Cuttings to TakeCuttings to Take589 = 589
- Calculate Mother Plants NeededMother Plants Needed24 = 24
- Calculate Expected SurvivorsExpected Survivors501 = 501
- Calculate Expected LossesExpected Losses88 = 88
Engine last updated . Checked against 1 independently-derived test — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Cuttings to Take go up if I lower my success rate?
Cuttings to Take is your target divided by the expected success rate, so a lower success rate means more of your starting cuttings are expected to fail and you need to take more of them to still hit your finished-plant goal. A 50% success rate roughly doubles the cuttings needed compared to an 85% rate for the same target.
Do mother plant, hormone, and tray costs change how many cuttings I need?
No — Mother Plant Cost, Rooting Hormone Cost per Cutting, and Media & Tray Cost per Tray only affect the dollar totals (Total Propagation Cost and Cost per Finished Plant). Cuttings to Take is driven entirely by Target Finished Plants and Rooting Success Rate, so adjusting these cost fields never changes your cutting or mother-plant counts.
How does Cuttings per Mother Plant affect my stock plant needs?
It's an inverse relationship — the more cuttings you can reliably take from a single mother plant per cycle, the fewer mother plants you need to supply your total cutting count. Raising Cuttings per Mother Plant lowers Mother Plants Needed, while a low-yield stock plant forces you to keep more donor plants in production.
Why does the calculator assume 72-cell trays?
72-cell trays are a common standard size in commercial and hobby propagation, offering a reasonable balance of cell size and bench-space efficiency for rooting cuttings before transplant. Trays Needed divides your total cutting count by 72 cells per tray and rounds up, so if your operation uses a different cell count, treat the tray figure as a rough sizing reference rather than an exact order quantity.
What isn't factored into the cost estimates?
The cost totals only sum stock plant cost, rooting hormone cost, and media/tray cost across your cutting and mother-plant counts. They don't include labor for taking and sticking cuttings, greenhouse bench space or utilities, mist system operation, or losses beyond your stated rooting success rate — treat Cost per Finished Plant as a materials-only estimate.
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